Ranma Nibun No Ichi: Back to the Beginning
by ranma15177301291
Summary: Akane goes on a training journey alone...Or does she?
1. Default Chapter

Hello Everyone! This is my first Ranma 1/2 fic. I don't own Ranma, that honor belongs to the beloved Takahashi Rumiko Sensei. Actually I guess it sort of belongs to Viz too, and Suikoden, and a lot of other companies I can't remember or don't know about. Major Spoilers for the END OF THE SERIES!!! If you don't want to know what happens don't read this. I am picking up a little after the wedding debacle. I did my best to keep everyone in character. Nabiki is Nabiki however, and I find it hard to write her : ) Please read and review! I hope you like it! Please understand that this is the rewrite of a story that I wrote over four years ago. So maybe some of the more cliché moments you see in here weren't quite so cliché back in the day.   
  
A Ranma Nibun No Ichi Story:   
  
Back to the Beginning   
  
By Ranma1517730129   
  
"RAAAANNMAAA!!!!" Akane punted Ranma into the stratosphere and breathed loudly, her hands clenched at her sides. "Idiot" she whispered. She stared down at her hands and sighed loudly. She wouldn't cry. Crying was for the weak, and Akane Tendo was not weak. At least she didn't used to be, although she could count on her hands the number of times she had cried before Ranma came and now she wasn't really sure if she could say that. She stood there concentrating on her hands then she looked beyond them into the pond as she recounted the events that she could remember. //When my mother died...Ryugenzawa...That time with Nabiki...The Sakura festival after mom died.// The occasions ticked off in her head one after another. Akane focused back on her hands.   
  
Most of the tears in her past were about her mother. "Why? Everything would be so different...If you had just stayed here with us. I miss you." The last words were choked with emotion. Akane felt the strength seep out of her legs and she fell to her knees. Anger, pain, regret, sadness, but mostly anger stung at the back of her eyes and threatened to become hot tears. She stared at her image in the pond and waited until the storm of emotion passed. She looked in the water and tried to see her mother in herself...Her eyes...Maybe her smile...Kasumi looked more like her mother than she ever would. Akane knew that her mother had been a beautiful woman, and Akane was a tomboy. Akane's hand touched the water before she ever even realized that she had reached forward. "Maybe I am un-cute" Akane thought out loud.   
  
Her mind glossed over her recent memories. Saffron, Rouge, Jusenkyo, Jusendo, an admission...Or not, she could very well have imagined it. //Ranma seemed quick to deny it,// She thought bitterly. Akane remembered being weak, so frail. Never had she come so close to death and in that moment she understood her mother. How she must have felt. So close but not able to reach out... Maybe her mother felt like she did when she was dying. Naked fear, cold as an icy wind in the winter. Feelings of helplessness, never being able to say what you wanted to no matter how close you are to... //No...// Akane looked into her own eyes. No her mother was sick, she wasn't an asphyxiating doll. Although dying like that was terrifying it wasn't like her mother's death at all. Better not to compare the two.   
  
Akane looked back into the pond her face superimposed on koi swimming in little circles feeding on the bottom of the glassy pool. In the past when Akane needed strength she would simply train harder. Maybe that was what she needed now. Training. Perhaps she could use her feelings in a positive way. She imagined going on a training journey. Japan in the winter and spring, learning what she could from those along the way as she walked the path of a true martial artist. Wind whipping through trees covered in snow and then new buds in the spring falling about her as she went through a kata in the light of the early dawn. //Ranma's face staring at her. Eyes full of mystery, deep blue beautiful pools...Wait where did that come from//  
  
"Ranma!" Akane said in surprise. Then she realized she was falling backwards. She took a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding and let out a muffled "urummph" as she landed on her butt.   
  
"Hey Akane, what are you doing? You've been out here for hours. Are you really that mad?"   
  
She tried to remember what Ranma's latest infraction had been but she just couldn't concentrate enough so she said what came easiest. "Dolt!"   
  
"Hey listen I ain't checkin' on you cause' I want to. Kasumi made me! And," Akane felt her hands go out before Ranma could say anything more stupid. *Splash* Instant redhead. "HEY! Whadja' do that for?!?"   
  
"Don't bother me Ranma. I'm NOT in the mood." Akane lifted herself off the ground and walked into the house. She heard the girl yelling things to her but she didn't hear what it was that she said Akane was too focused on her next move to care.   
  
***************   
  
Ranma knew what was coming next. He heard his name and he felt himself ready his body for lower earth orbit...Then it came...POW! "Stupid tom-boy." He mumbled. // If she insists on makin' food how come I always gotta' choke it down. Have ta' admit though, that wasn't as bad as the last concoction...Maybe she's getting better. // The thought was in his head for five seconds before he landed on the roof of the Tendo Dojo. "Hey at least this time I didn't go through the roof." He said bemusedly from his headstanding position.   
  
Nothing bothered Ranma more than his ability to find trouble when he wanted it least and making a hole in the Dojo meant more work for him. It's not that he minded mending the dojo's roof. It's just that the place was like a second home to him and it had just been fixed after the debacle with the near wedding between him and Akane. The line of thought ended there, Ranma wanted nothing to do with the ideas floating in his head at that moment. She could be so difficult sometimes. He never understood what she was thinking. One minute she was fine. The next...Well...She was callin' him stupid and hitting him into the friendly skies. //Girls are so difficult! // With that thought he righted himself from his position on his head and walked toward the edge of the roof and he saw Akane. She was staring at her hands like they were the most interesting thing in the world. // Weird //, thought Ranma, but he felt a strange need to watch. This was a side to Akane he almost never saw. Passive but, still so much inner strength. Sometimes she could be so...   
  
"Why? Everything would be so different...If you had just stayed here with us. I miss you." Akane was talking to herself.   
  
Ranma felt a pang of sorrow for the girl standing there in that moment. He knew what it was like to be without a mother. Akane was swaying on her feet, and that was when Akane fell to her knees. Ranma felt the need to catch her, hold her, do something, but he wasn't sure so he just watched. // I wonder if she's still weak from Jusenkyo...// Ranma didn't go there either. Ranma never thought too hard about stuff that bothered him. Death, dying, sickness, anything that involved those things and the people he l...//what's she doin'?//   
  
Ranma watched Akane stare at the water. Whatever was bugging her had to be serious, Ranma knew the look on her face. Introspective and looking for something beyond the face staring back at you. Her hand slowly reached out and touched the water where her face reflected; she seemed startled and put her hand back on the ground. Ranma stared at the girl sitting on the grass around the pond.   
  
"Maybe I am un-cute." She said to the water.   
  
Two years and he didn't know if he really knew Akane the person. He knew that he liked her. He could say that in his mind. She was smart, interesting, funny when she wanted to be, all the things that guys went for. Not to mention that she was brash, violent, and could be very un-cute, but Ranma knew that her good qualities were what people were willing to die for. //Kill...It had hurt, I thought that she was gone, Saffron would have been dead...I tried to kill him. Man I have got to stop this or I'm gonna' start lookin' like Akane.// Ranma tried to bring himself levity but it failed pitifully. His hands were out in front of himself like they were when he did the Mouku Tokabisha. "Such power" he said silently to himself.   
  
For a second he was back in Jusendo, two bodies, one violently brought to his end lay somewhere in the scorched earth. That body would have to wait. Ranma looked down at Akane; his red Chinese shirt was wrapped around her otherwise naked body. Akane...she wasn't breathing. She wasn't a doll anymore, this wasn't supposed to happen. He had fought for the water, won, and she had changed back. She was supposed to open her eyes, maybe yell at him for seeing her naked. Anguish, it wasn't just a word, it felt exactly like it sounded. She couldn't be dead; he never got to tell her how he felt. "I love you." It sounded so hollow. She couldn't hear it. She would never hear it. Then her eyes opened. Every emotion he knew and some he didn't passed through him. He faintly remembered Ryoga being there but right now, in his mind it was just the two of them. The scene started to play itself out in his head in a completely different way. Ranma held her and told her everything. Good things, bad things, stuff that he wouldn't tell his own mother, an unusually long list considering his mother...That wasn't how it happened though. Ranma shook his head. Feelings stuff just wasn't his thing.   
  
Akane was still staring at herself when Ranma jumped off the roof. He approached silently and bent his head into Akane's line of vision...she didn't flinch. "Hey Akane, what are you doing? You've been out here for hours. Are you really that mad?" He decided that the direct approach was best. She finally saw him when he spoke and she seemed really surprised. The goofy smile that she was wearing went away, too bad, she was adorable.   
  
"Dolt", she said.   
  
//I take it all back,// he thought. "Hey listen I ain't checkin' on you cause' I want to. Kasumi made me! And," Ranma was rambling. It took him completely by surprise; it was the fastest she had ever moved. The air, the pond, Ranma felt the change take over. Where he was, she now stood. "HEY! Whadja' do that for?!?" Ranma said aggravated.   
  
"Don't bother me Ranma. I'm NOT in the mood."   
  
This said she was already turning to leave. "Where you think you're going? Hey come back here! You are so un-cute!" The words were there but they were really half hearted. Ranma-girl type felt her voice fail, "Akane, are you ok? Can I help?" her words became quiet until they died on her lips...She just couldn't say that stuff aloud.   
  
***************   
  
It was three in the morning. The darkness in Akane's room was battling with the light from her window. It was no use, no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't find sleep. There was so much to do. Her pack was already filled with clothes, two books, money she had begged off of Nabiki. Vaguely she wondered if a 2% interest was good or not. Her father was going to cry; she hated watching him cry. It was inevitable though. Kasumi might pack some extra things for her to eat. That would be better than hunting from the start. Inevitably her mind went to her arranged fiancée. Part of her wanted to invite Ranma, the other half wanted to bribe Nabiki into getting rid of him for the morning. That's when the light shifted by her window. //Happosi...no, he has gone off again.// She corrected herself. Then the form opened her latch and sat in the window. Akane feigned sleep.   
  
"Hey Akane...how long are you gonna' pretend to be asleep?"   
  
"Ranma! What are you doing in my room?!?" Akane whispered exasperated at Ranma's invasion of her privacy.   
  
"Keep it down, you want everybody to hear?" Ranma chastened her. Akane blushed deep crimson."Oh. Ah. Ummm. Sorry. I-ah...You want to meet me on the roof?"   
  
"Ok..." Akane decided to humor Ranma this time. He didn't insult her, which was a good sign. She looked over to ask Ranma when he wanted to have this talk but he was already gone. Akane slid out of her window placing her feet on the owning and grabbed the gable to the roof. "Honestly" Akane said aloud as she pulled herself up over the gutter. She was only slightly surprised when a pair of strong hands grabbed her waist and helped her up the rest of the way. "Can I help you Ranma?" Akane tried to sound aloof, but it wasn't working, she sounded as worried as she felt.   
  
"Hey um. I was just a little worried is all, you don't have to get all upset!" Ranma looked over his shoulder at Akane and tried to hide the expression of worry.   
  
"Oh, Ranma is that all?" Akane smiled, he was worried. Akane sat on the roof and motioned for Ranma to join her. He stood there for a second. "I won't bite!" Akane let a little of the annoyance she felt creep into her words. Ranma sat down and looked up at the stars then leaned back to look at the panorama of the sky before beginning.   
  
"Akane..." Ranma stole himself as if for battle. "I noticed this afternoon that you seemed kind of...Upset. Something was bothering you. I thought maybe you would want to talk er' somethin'."   
  
Akane decided that this was the answer to her question. He had asked so she would tell him. "Ranma, promise me you won't get mad or say anything until I'm finished ok?" Akane noticed that Ranma flinched a little with those words. Akane silently wondered if she'd hurt his feelings. She leaned back to join Ranma looking up at the shining firmament. "Since you arrived my life has turned upside-down." Akane began. She noticed Ranma getting ready to respond but the sound didn't quite reach his lips so she continued. "However the only thing that sticks out in my mind is that I wasn't able to stop any of it. I'm a martial artist too, but I didn't defeat Toma, or Taro, or even Shampoo. For a while I just let it go, but I can't now. I am going to inherit the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, I am it's sole heir, whether I marry you or not." The last statement made Akane blush, but she had to say it. Ranma seemed quite, so she continued.   
  
"I think that the last two years have taught me one thing above all else. I need more training. I need to see the world and learn more than what my father has taught me. The Anything Goes School is depending on me. I believe in it and I don't want to let myself down. My honor needs this..." Ranma didn't know much about feelings, but Akane knew he understood honor. She felt like the statement was a little calculating, maybe below the belt, but Ranma was nodding his head and he hadn't said anything yet. Maybe just maybe she was getting through. "I am leaving tomorrow. I am going to find that missing piece of my training. I just can't return until I do. I know that you understand...Please Ranma...Say you understand."   
  
*********************   
  
Ranma understood alright. Ranma understood that Akane was going out into the wilds of Japan and invariably going to get herself killed. He wanted to say that she was insane. He wanted to tell her that she couldn't leave...Why?...Because...Because...He would eventually think of something beside himself. Some other reason that wouldn't be so damn embarrassing. "I understand Akane..."   
  
"Oh Ranma..."Akane whispered. He cast a sidelong glance at Akane.   
  
"I understand that you can't cook, so you'll starve to death. You can't swim, so you'll drown. When you're sick ya' don't know how ta' take care of yourself. On the other hand you're built like a brick and you're dumb as an ox so maybe it'll take you longer to realize you're in trouble. Have fun Akane. Don't worry about us we'll come see you in the hospital or somethin' alright!" He made little waving gestures and smiled a big toothy grin. Ranma knew he was laying it on thick, but maybe this would buy him some time. He saw it coming. It came out of nowhere, but he always knew it was there. Maybe it was his advanced sense of danger. He could have blocked it, but he always knew when he deserved it most. This was one of those times.   
  
"RAAAANMAAA!" she swung the hammer and it collided with his head.   
  
He also knew where he was headed. Ranma had come to the conclusion long ago that cursed people also attracted water like the plague. What Ranma, now Ranma-chan, didn't expect was the reaction that Akane would have to his little tirade, she was on her way out the door when Ranma sputtered to life again. "Awwww geez...Akane wait up!" Ranma jumped into the second story window and landed on something big and furry. "Pop get outa' my way!" Ranma-chan ran around the room grabbing everything she needed for a training journey and was just packing the kettle when a sign connected with her head. The abused panda looked mad.   
  
"What's the big idea?!? Show some respect to your father!" The sign said. The panda then looked at his son/daughter and noticed the pack "Are we going somewhere?" was scrawled on the new sign.   
  
"Nope." Ranma kicked the panda into the awaiting pond, shouldered his pack, and ran downstairs grabbing the ever-ready kettle off the stove splashing her/himself and running from the dojo at top speed. Akane wasn't fast but she had a good lead, and he didn't want her getting away. "How can I protect ya' if you just keep running off...Stupid tomboy. If you get hurt..." Ranma didn't finish the thought a long line of unfinished thoughts of late. He couldn't. So he thought something else. //Once a year, if I can just get her to run away from home only once a year.//   
  
***************   
  
Nabiki hung up the earphones. Sure, she expected that Akane would one day go completely insane. At first it was because of Kuno-baby, she thought that one day one of the boys at school would beat her and she would just go over the edge. Then, well then Ranma moved in. In one moment the situation at school went from strange to almost welcome or normal. Princes, martial artists, old hags with the ability to make waterspouts and magical potions these were all a part of daily life now. All of these things were strange, but very profitable. Nabiki stared down at her abacus and smiled. Yes, profits had gone way up since Ranma arrived. It was not a coincidence either.   
  
Nabiki often found herself openly using her bequeathed brother-in-law in many a scheme. His girl side was a moneymaking commodity, although for her sisters' sake she hoped that one day he would rid himself of the girl-side. //It's just too strange.// She thought to herself. The Tendo girl then decided to open the letter that was quickly shoved under the door of her room. The lines of the letter were blurry to her eyes, mostly because the girl had gotten no sleep that evening. Spying on her sister was tiring work, earlier she even thought about having a talk with her. Akane was despondent. Not like the normal anger, she wasn't talking to anyone. Usually her wrath was saved for Ranma alone, but not today. That made Nabiki worry. Akane was always angry about something, but recently her anger was not as fiery or quick to burn. She was suffering over something, keeping the sadness inside. Nabiki didn't think of herself as an expert on feelings but she knew when her sister was acting strange. Nabiki also knew a lot about keeping emotion suppressed. She stared at the letter willing her eyes to focus so she could read.   
  
"Dear Nabiki,   
  
I have gone on a training journey. I decided to give you the letter because you are the only one in the family that is reasonable when it comes to my training. I trust you will give the message to father in a calm and rational manner. Today my status as a true martial artist becomes a reality. I will not return to the Tendo Dojo until my mastery is that of a disciplined and strong teacher. I intend to backpack across Japan with nothing but my wits to keep me safe. I will return. Don't worry about me. Thanks again for the cash advance.   
  
Love,   
  
Akane"   
  
"Good lord" said Nabiki. Nabiki didn't understand this training journey crap. "She's finally gone insane. I hope Ranma catches up to her quick, cause' if Akane is surviving by her wits alone she won't be alive very long." Now only one question remained. "How on earth do I tell Daddy." She stood up. "Well no time like the present." Nabiki only noticed a grousing damp panda standing in the early rays of the sun as she was turning to leave. She wondered mildly what had been said before Ranma left, signs didn't speak and Ranma didn't say much because she/he was in a hurry. She decided she would have a little fun before the house exploded with a new crisis. Nabiki opened her window, and turned on her light so that Genma could see her better. "Hey Mr. Saotome, taking an early morning dip?" The panda growled a response and then realized that he didn't have the correct vocal chords and held up a waterlogged sign. "Ah, Good Morning Nabiki, nothing like an early morning constitutional." She snickered. "Good morning. Uncle." The last statement was dry, but she found it hard not to crack a smile. She heard Kasumi's door open. Breakfast would be ready soon, she better tell daddy now so that he wouldn't cry all over the food. "Hey Daddy!"   
  
***********   
  
Nerima was waking all around Akane. She was finding a bit of peace comforting, but she was worried that eventually solitude would wear upon her need for company. She held two envelopes in her hand but she would deliver them at one location. Eventually the second letter would get to the intended individual. Of course one envelope was to Yuka and Sayori. She had written them each a personal note and put them together. Akane figured that the two would be together at least once today. The other envelope was addressed to Ranma. Although their conversation had gone really badly, she didn't doubt that Ranma would be upset if she didn't at least explain better. If she'd been able to contain her anger earlier she would have told him then. Akane had asked Yuka to deliver Ranma's letter herself. Yuka had never let her down before, and she believed in her now. Akane was simply going to drop the letter in the mail slot when Yuka walked out of her house.   
  
"Hey Akane!" Akane hadn't expected to be confronted with her friend this early in the morning. Yuka was a late sleeper, especially when she didn't have to attend school.   
  
"Your father just called looking for you. I could hardly make out what he was saying but he wanted to know if I'd seen you today." Akane tried to smile but her face wanted to crack. They were already looking for her. Ranma must have told them she was gone. She could only imagine him sitting there smugly refusing to go after her. Pointing out that he'd chased her enough. Akane's fist clenched and unclenched a rock that she'd picked up earlier noticing that it had become dust and sand in her palm. Yuka was staring at her friend. She was expecting a reply. "I'm sorry Yuka what did you say?"   
  
"I said, should I call and tell them you're here? Or should I just do what I think'll be best and let you go?" Yuka was a smart girl, she had realized that the pack on Akane's back was really heavily laden with equipment.   
  
"Thank you Yuka. I appreciate it." Akane smiled. Yuka was a good friend.   
  
"How about if Ranma comes by..." Akane stood there for a second. She considered it.   
  
"Tell Ranma that I was here...but don't tell him which way I went." Yuka smiled at her friend. Akane wasn't hiding from him and she seemed to appreciate that. Yuka stared at Akane's hand and the letters that were obviously for her care.   
  
"Those meant for me?" Yuka giggled. Akane guessed because of the death grip in which she held the letters.   
  
"Yes. Sorry Yuka. I'm going to miss you a lot." She hugged her friend. She tried to remember a time Yuka wasn't in her life but found the memories hard to locate. "Give Sayori a hug for me. Good bye Yuka." Her friend was now holding the letters against her. Was she crying? Akane tried to smile but found her lips wouldn't respond. She felt a tear spill down her cheek.   
  
"Should I give Ranma a hug for you too?" Yuka was now grinning impishly.   
  
"No!" Akane felt her cheeks get hot. "Um, I mean, if you want to, I mean. Forget it." Akane was a little flustered and she knew that it was showing. "Whatever you think is appropriate. You can do me a favor though. Make sure that Ukyo doesn't try anything while I'm gone ok? That goes for Shampoo too. Without me here who knows what kind of trouble Ranma'll get himself into." Yuka was laughing again. That was good, it would make leaving a little easier.   
  
"Oh, Akane. You know that Ranma will get into trouble whether you are here or not. But I'll still try my best to remind him you still exist. Like I think he could ever forget considering how much he's in love with you." Yuka smiled as Akane gaped at her, but Akane recovered quickly. She gave her a big smile.  
  
"Bye Yuka!" Akane ran away from her friend's house not looking back.   
  
******************   
  
Yuka watched her friend go. "Good luck Akane!" Yuka shouted. Akane had become so strong. She remembered when Akane would have just gone home when her father called. Akane was going out on her own. Yuka wondered how long it would be before she would venture out on her own. She stared at the beautiful pinking sky and realized that it would be a wonderful day. "Akane, the sun is shining on your decision." Yuka tried to imagine her life without Akane. "It's going to be a dull year." She said to no one. Out of the corner of her eye Yuka detected a blur. Being Akane's friend was good eye training. The blur ran in front of her house. She thought she saw a smile with a hand held toward her...V...for victory. "Good morning Ranma!" she called. "Want your letter?" Yuka blinked when she realized it was already gone. "You two have fun now." Yuka opened the door with a smile and felt herself running for the phone, time to call Sayori.   
  
******************   
  
Ranma had caught up to Akane after about one hour. It would have been sooner but he had to think about what Akane would do. Ranma wasn't always good about getting in the mind of his fiancée. He went to the wrong friend's house and arrived at Yuka's a little after Akane had left. Yuka was standing outside and Ranma finally knew he was on the right track. He saw a letter with his name on it, ran forward, and grabbed it before the girl could even say hi. Ranma loved to do things like this, it was the highlight of being a martial artist. He could never imagine being slow, clumsy, or unbalanced. His ki was in harmony with the rest of his body. He had been a martial artist since before he could remember. Genma had seen to that. He had to give up a few things in his life, but he was never the type to whine about life, so he'd tried to make the best of an otherwise bad situation.   
  
Akane was now in view. So the question he'd avoided until now came into Ranma's mind. //Should I make her turn back?// Ranma realized that Akane had been really miserable lately. Ranma noted to himself that if he had noticed others must have. //I'd never pick up on something like that unless it was real obvious.// Ranma acknowledged, he wasn't really good at picking out peoples feelings. Akane is a hard person to read anyway, Ranma knew. She hid behind violence a lot. It was easy. Ranma did it himself on occasions and he always knew when he did it. //A weakness? No.// Ranma thought this over. //Not a weakness. Just easier sometimes, I think I get that stuff from Pop. He doesn't deal with stuff either.// Ranma realized that he was a lot like his father sometimes. The thought made him shudder.   
  
Ranma looked at Akane. The sun had risen low over the roofs of Nerima and it seemed to make her glow like some kind of angel. //Nope. I'm gonna' follow her for a while. Figure out where she's headed and call the Tendo's. I'll tell them that Me and Akane are together. That'll make her dad stop cryin'. Keep him and Pop drunk for a while. I'll just keep them posted. Akane deserves this. Maybe it'll be fun.// Ranma realized that he hadn't been on a training journey in a while. Maybe this is what he needed, maybe it would make the dreams go away. Jusendo was haunting his mind awake and asleep. This might be precisely what the doctor ordered.   
  
******************   
  
"WHY???" Soun was crying and he saw that his daughter was giving him a stern and uninterested look.   
  
"How should I know, daddy, she just did, ok?"   
  
Nabiki could be so cold sometimes. A father could be saddened by such a lack of empathy in a daughter. //So unlike her mother.// This line of thought only made Soun cry harder. Soun had asked the middle daughter to produce the letter in question but she sternly refused, she said that it was worth a lot to her. Soun realized that a trinket of ones siblings' departure would be valuable to them so he didn't prod Nabiki any further. "It's so good to see you holding your sister's last wishes in such a protective manner. It makes me so proud!" Soun was in fact very proud of his middle daughter. She was very intelligent, and thorough in thought. She could turn any situation her way. Absently he wondered if she was manipulating him now. That was not possible however. Nabiki would never do something to hurt her one and only Daddy. "Oh Akane." He wailed again. His daughter rolled her eyes.   
  
"Daddy, she isn't dead. She went on a training mission. How do you expect her to inherit the dojo if she doesn't train."   
  
Soun thought about this for a moment and his tears abated. He then decided his next course of action was to cut Akane off before she could get too far. Soun tried not to sob as he called Akane's friends. Neither girl knew anything about where Akane was headed. Soun replaced the receiver to the phone and stared up at Nabiki. "Anything could happen to her alone in the wilderness...Oh my BABY GIRL!" Tears flowed freely again as a panda entered the room.   
  
"Growf?" Soun stared at his friend-turned- Panda.   
  
"Akane! Oh, Akane!" Soun watched Nabiki turn to the damp panda.   
  
"Akane has run off Uncle." His middle daughter was taking this too well.   
  
"Oh my!" Kasumi stepped into the room. His eldest daughter wore a look of concern. Soun realized that he might have been a little too loud. "Akane wasn't in her room, when I went to call her for breakfast...I guess that's why." His oldest daughter was taking this too well.   
  
"RANMA!" Soun looked around the room to find the obvious reason for his daughter's latest trip. "Where are you?" Soun's head began to look like an inflated oni.   
  
"DADDY! That's what I was trying to tell you!" Nabiki was staring at him. He thought he had missed a few things she said while he was crying but he got so emotional sometimes. "Ranma is with Akane." Soun broke down into new tears. Tears of joy.   
  
"Oh MY LITTLE GIRL!" Soun and the panda embraced. "Come on Genma let's go get a drink!"   
  
The panda held up a sign. "You're buying, right?" Soun was too happy to point out it was Genma's turn.   
  
"But father isn't it a little early?" Kasumi had said this. Soun decided not to answer the question and instead cried more and left his room to wait for Genma. Today, they would celebrate the joining of their dojos.   
  
*********************************   
  
"Here is the first step!" Akane was staring at the road and the train station. She didn't know which to take so she stood and waffled. Akane imagined that Ranma would have yelled at her by now if he had been there. She almost thought she heard him curse, but she knew that it would be a few days before Ranma caught up. "Why do I care?" She mused to herself. //He's not here now, besides saying stuff like that makes me sound like I want him with me. Do I?// Akane got more frustrated. She started to walk down the road. It led past a field, and Akane decided that she would walk through the field to the tree line and follow a path as soon as she found one.   
  
She looked behind her at the way she came. Nerima was beginning to look like a far away dot on the horizon. Out here she could see for miles. There was no where to hide. Ranma hadn't followed her. //Why should he? The only reason he goes after me is because they kick him out of the house if he doesn't. Am I disappointed?// Akane decided to let the question go. She started to concentrate on her breath. She regulated it, and then picked the speed of her air going in and out. Breathing was very important to one's ki. Air had to reach every part of ones body. Blood is cleaned by the air we take in, and without air we die. Akane knew this, but she had done very little with her breathing in years. Each breath was slowly measured. She took in air and let her lungs burn with expectance to let the air out, then she deprived them of air. Her lungs felt like a well-stoked fire.   
  
Akane returned to a normal breathing pattern but was acutely aware of each breath. Then she took notice of how she was breathing, not shallow breaths that filled only the top of the lungs, but deep breaths found at the bottom of her diaphragm. She remembered that her father had taught her all of these exercises early in her training.   
  
"The first things you learn are sometimes the least practiced" Akane mused. She looked at the tree line and saw what she had been looking for. "A trail!" Akane stated happily. She walked toward the trees and entered the forest, but ventured a look back at Nerima. One last look. She stood tall and bowed at the waist. "When I return I will bring honor to my family." Akane tried to keep a snapshot in her head of how the day looked. The field had a sort of shining to it in the mid-afternoon light. "Where is Furinkan High School?" Akane giggled. She hoped that she saw Ryoga while she was out here. Then again what were the chances that she would run into anyone out here? She turned from her home and walked into the darkness of the forest.   
  
Akane would travel fifteen minutes before the deer path was no longer beaten out ending in a thorn bush. "Oh yeah...This is the life" Akane frowned as she pulled the long thorny vine away from her clothes and out of her forearm.   
  
************************   
  
Ranma cursed again under his breath. Why was she just standing there like an idiot? It looked like she was going to go forward, then she stopped. "Urgh!" he found himself beginning to curse but Akane looked in his direction. If she saw him now the cool part of this training journey would be over. Ranma's game of avoid-the-Akane was beginning to just really get fun, and he had no intentions of spoiling it so early in the game. //Walk for it Akane! It'll be more work, and that's what you're out here for.// Ranma caught himself thinking. Akane looked like she was suddenly really angry about something and started to walk down the road.   
  
"YES!" At Akane's final decision Ranma bounded down to the train station and stuck his phone card into the slot. "Hey Kasumi...Yeah, I know...Well it was kind of a last minute decision. NO! Sorry...Didn't mean to yell. No Kasumi we aren't eloping. Akane and me...Yeah I...Are going on a long training journey." Kasumi was the one he really wanted to talk to. Nabiki could be so mercenary and he didn't think that he could really fool her. That's when the voice changed...Oh no!   
  
"Ranma. Hey. Nabiki." Ranma felt his stomach curdle. "Do me a favor and keep my little sister safe ok? By the way I know the truth and I lied for you so I am going to put it on your tab with a five percent interest for every month you are gone ok?" She didn't wait for Ranma to say anything she had handed the phone back to Kasumi.   
  
"Yeah...Ok Kasumi. Tell anyone that comes by that I'm on a training journey...Well yeah except them. I don't want that kind of trouble popping up. Talk to you soon! Bye Kasumi!" Ranma hung up the phone. "That...That... Nabiki!" He yelled at the pay phone. People were walking around him like he was insane, so Ranma decided that now was a good time to stop disturbing the wa and start the game again.   
  
"Here we go." Ranma picked up speed and felt his legs pumping under him. His pack was just heavy enough to cause a marginal loss of speed, but nothing critical. By his own reckoning he could still beat Ryoga with this thing on, so it wouldn't be a big deal. He looked at the road where Akane had apparently gone into the field. //Well gee Akane don't cover your tracks at all do ya'?// Ranma looked at a green field that had a part straight down the center and weaved a bit in . Ranma looked at the road heading into the tunnel, then looked toward the field. He knew she was out there somewhere, but an open field would end the game and Ranma figured this was the perfect stealth exercise. Akane would be edgy and notice him if he made the slightest noise. She had proved this when she looked for him at the train station. Ranma entered the forest and jumped into the trees. "Tree stealth. I feel like a ninja from one of those anime movies." Ranma jumped lightly from branch to branch. Each jump was timed and measured. If Ranma guessed wrong he would fall.   
  
Training with Akane was fun...Especially when she didn't know he was there. It wasn't long before he saw her. She seemed to be concentrating hard on something. Probably breathing techniques, he thought. She doesn't think about stuff like that enough, but then group fighters usually don't. Akane could afford to be sloppy against multiple foes as long as they didn't have any central thought. Group mentality is messy and doesn't learn from its mistakes. Akane used that to her advantage all the time when she fought. She was coming toward him now. She had seen the path in the forest. She was looking homeward and Ranma doubted her resolve for a second. "Go ahead Akane. You can do it." Ranma felt like a cheerleader. He knew that only she could make the decision to go forward. Akane was mumbling something in the direction of home...He made out the word honor. He watched as she went into the woods and smiled, he wondered how long it would take for Akane to realize she was on an eventually terminating deer path. 


	2. Chapter 2

Author Note: Yes, I was just going about my business and I realized that I didn't tell you what the punctuation in the story for chapter one was.   
  
" Is for speech"  
  
// Is for thoughts.//  
  
Good? Oh, by the way. I am reposting this after revising it on a new/old pen name. I couldn't get into my old account...Ahh, FF.net. Sometimes I can not understand thee.   
  
Back to the Beginning   
  
Chapter 2   
  
By Ranma1517730129   
  
Akane stared about the forest and whimsy made her imagination run wild. She imagined that she was on a quest like in one of those fantasy novels. She would meet up with people along the way who would go with her to destroy the evil warlord. The companions all with a past that had some tragedy linked to the evil miss-doings of the cold-hearted landowner. She would find out that her family was royalty or something and at the end she would fall in love with one of her traveling companions. This traveling companion slowly materialized in her mind. //Tall, muscular (but not gross), martial artist...Did fantasy stories have martial artists?\\ she mused. Her mind returned to the list //blue eyes, long black hair, incredible smile.// Akane blushed profusely at the smile the companion was giving her. She was shocked back into reality by a squirrel that leapt from her path and she made a stunning realization, //I just described Ranma.// She was almost glowing red as she told her imagination, "Clam up! Or I'll mallet you!" Akane smiled at her own antics, but just then another part of her body made a grim protest. Akane stared down at her stomach.   
  
"I'm really glad I'm out in the forest, that was really loud!" She addressed her stomach as she stopped. The pack was set down slowly off of aching shoulders and she wondered faintly if she might be out of shape. No not out of shape. She looked down at her watch. //It has been fifteen hours since I left this morning. Which means...Which means I haven't eaten since last night at dinner! No wonder I'm so hungry.// Akane rummaged around in her pack and found what she was looking for. Kasumi had made Akane a bento per her request the night before because Akane had told her that she was going on a picnic with Yuka and Sayuri and she found herself straining to move faster to get some food in her angry tummy.   
  
//Wow I am really glad that I had Kasumi make a lunch for me. I would have had to find food tonight otherwise, and I am really tired.// Akane plopped unceremoniously on her butt and pulled the lid off of her bento. The bento was crammed full and would have burst all over the ground had Akane not slowed her pace mid pull. Bean buns, pork buns, rice, two slices of chilled beef, pickles, and five sakura mochi that Kasumi had put in a separate container. Kasumi had really packed this thing! "Who do I look like? Ranma?" Akane glanced again into the bento and realized that maybe Kasumi knew more than she was letting on. //My older sister Kasumi is such a mystery sometimes. I never know what she's thinking. She seems so simple to understand. Sometimes I think that she just acts simple to make Dad happy. I never think about Kasumi like a regular girl but she's only a few years older than me.// Akane frowned at her inattention toward her sister. //When I return I am going to make it a point to really get to know Kasumi better!\\ Akane pledged silently. Upon closer inspection of the Sakura Mochi Akane found a cello-bag full of dried green tea leaves, enough to last at least a month or two. Akane smiled.// I definitely have to get to know Kasumi better!\\   
  
Akane then decided to see what she had remembered to ration on her way out. She picked through her pack and found something that made her heart miss a beat. Kasumi had packed something in her bag too sometime last night. Akane pulled out a second bento. She knew who the bento belonged to, it had been handed to her every morning along with her own for the last two years. Akane looked at the note attached to the bento "For Ranma". She stared for some time at the note on the bento. Each stroke in Kasumi's characters was beautiful and practiced. It was like looking at art. Then her conscious mind smacked her unconscious mind waking her from her silent penmanship envy. "FOR RANMA" it screamed at her. Kasumi knew she was leaving, she knew that she would be really hungry when she stopped. Akane's eyes darted all around her.   
  
"Where are you?" She said out loud. "Come on Ranma! Don't you want dinner? Kasumi MADE this for you..." she felt herself rise to her feet and fall into an easy defensive stance. "Come on! I'm not going to stand here all night!" Akane felt a little foolish yelling at the foliage. Red...she thought she saw red in the tree. Time for a little closer inspection. She leapt from the ground and landed on a sturdy branch on the tall tree above and it shook a little. Birds took flight away from the new and hostile invader. Akane looked all around her. This was a really different view of the world. She looked at the surrounding copse and each clump of leaves seemed to become a shape. It was dusk outside and a little darker for the greenery blocking out the sun. Akane felt really foolish.   
  
"This is stupid!" she said out loud. "Nobody's here. I'm all alone..." Her voice gave out and was tinged with a little of the sadness she felt. Akane was sure Ranma would follow her. Up until now she just took comfort in the fact that maybe a few steps behind her he was there. He was watching. Now it was blatantly obvious that he was not behind her. Ranma Saotome would never pass up a chance for food. Especially Kasumi's cooking. //What the hell is wrong with me? I am a martial artist not some love sick teenage girl!// The fact that Akane was both never entered her mind. Or at least she wouldn't let it past the penguins in cold storage at the back of her brain. "Whatever." She said out loud more to herself than to the rocks, trees, and returning birds.   
  
Akane returned to the grassy earth and went about setting up camp. She still had water but that would run out soon enough. In the morning she would look for a stream or something. Akane pitched her tent and began to clear out enough underbrush to start a small fire. When flames finally licked upwards the moon was already overhead. Akane had run out of curses while building the fire. First the wood around her was too green to burn. Then when she went to search for twigs she found her pack in shambles a rather angry and confused tanooki hissing at her with the last of the sakura mochi hanging from its mouth. She picked up her belongings, and placed the gathered pack sans bentos and threw it in the tent. "I can't believe this!" Akane fumed. She absently chastened herself for doing something as stupid as leaving out food in the wilderness. //I am just letting the quiet get to me. I have to pay attention to what I'm doing. I don't have anyone to blame for this but myself. No one can tell you to do it...You have to do it for yourself.// Akane bubbled with new energy and began to attempt the archaic art of fire creation again. Fifteen minutes after her energizing epiphany she once again found herself agitated. Fire was more complicated than she thought.  
  
Fire licked up at the moon and Akane felt almost lonely in the dark night. She pulled out a book and read in the light of the fire pausing only to stoke it once in a while. Finally sleep overtook her senses and she buried the fire in soil and water. The weary martial artist zipped the tent closed and let exhaustion take her into the realm of dreams, the last thought in her head was of an imagined traveling companion his smile warming her tired heart.   
  
************************   
  
Ranma was very uncomfortable. He sat in the tree and looked down into the clearing straining to see in the dark. Confident that Akane was asleep he stealthily dropped from the trees and scouted the land about him. A stream gurgled not fifteen minutes walk from Akane's campsite. "You are one lucky tomboy Akane", noticing the way the stream looped towards him and then away. "This thing could be a mile or so away in its entirety." The full thought reminded him that he was relying too much on luck. //I ain't got no food supplies, and I don't think I can fool Akane forever.//  
  
His mind went back to earlier in the evening when Akane had finally stopped. //Geez I thought she was gonna' just walk all night too. Don't she ever get tired?// Ranma sat down on the tree branch and swung his feet back and forth. This was good training, but eventually he would have to do something else, what could he learn up here? Absently he wondered if he could learn Cologne's whirlwind or find a lake and learn how to make fish obey him. // Boy that old ghoul sure is weird. I guess I take it for granted but Akane is probably right about her world turning strange with me around. It's just always been what my life was like. She better get used to it cause...// Ranma stopped his thoughts. Sure Akane had put up with him so far and had even allowed herself to be forced into marrying him so he could be cured of the curse. That seemed to be it though. She had only gone along with it because she was a nice person. Ranma looked down at the seated tomboy.   
  
Akane was eating and Ranma felt his stomach protest. //Sooooo hungry// Ranma was drooling. That was when he noticed Akane was going through her pack. She rummaged through each compartment and Ranma wondered if he could steal a Sakura Mochi without Akane noticing. Akane got into the largest pocket and pulled out something he hadn't expected to see. //My bento! ALL RIGHT!// Ranma's heart sang in anticipation and his stomach warmed in enthusiasm and dropped suddenly when he saw the note. Kasumi had even put his name on there...but she didn't seem to know anything on the phone...Oh well a riddle for another time. Ranma was too hungry to contemplate Kasumi.  
  
"Where are you?" It had been Akane.   
  
Things had just gone from bad to worse and Ranma found himself seeking a way to hide himself as Akane launched herself towards his branch. He hugged the tree and swung around the trunk to the branch directly opposite the one he was on. He hoped that Akane didn't see. But she had called out to him. She had even said that he could have his bento and he wanted nothing more than to grab it. Food was sounding better and better by the moment, but that would end the training game and he wasn't really sure that food was worth that. Then again he also considered what was worth more than food. Ranma stifled his breathing and pressed further against the tree. //My pack...Awww geez. I hope Akane doesn't see it.// Ranma had shoved the rather large brown pack into the V between the upper branch and the trunk. He knew Akane knew exactly what his pack looked like. Ranma ordered his stomach to be quiet. He felt it lurching, trying to voice its anger at emptiness.   
  
"This is stupid," Akane had said out loud.   
  
Ranma agreed. He had nearly been caught. This was more fun than he expected it to be...Well minus the hunger pain.   
  
"Nobody's here. I'm all alone..."   
  
Ranma's heart gave a little squeeze. He almost gave away his position. //She sounds real lonely...Or maybe it's something else, like maybe disappointed. Stupid tomboy! If she'd just said she wanted company he would have come along.// He watched her leap to the ground and he snuffed at her. //Feh, well you deserve this right now then don't you?// Ranma said the words in his head but he didn't really feel like he meant them. //Maybe I should go down there. I could get some food and we could talk for awhile...// Ranma shook his head. //No, I gotta' let her do some stuff alone for a while.//   
  
Ranma watched as Akane tried to start a fire. //Wow. She's not too good at that.\\ He tried not to laugh when Akane gave up with the flint and tried to rub the sticks together. //It's green Akane// He said in his mind. //Go find some hard stuff...and while you're gone...// Akane did eventually go to find sticks and while she was gone Ranma devoured his food. Each bite was like a little piece of heaven. His stomach thanked him. Ranma was taking a bite out of the last Sakura Mochi when he heard Akane tromping through the forest. //OH NO!// He looked around the perimeter of the small camp and spied a smallish looking moving furry thing. //PERFECT!// Ranma grabbed the now angry creature and stuffed the Sakura Moochi in its mouth dropping it directly into Akane's pack. He sprung into the tree and watched the scene play itself out. //I am such a genius.// He pat himself on the back and then on the stomach. Kasumi had as usual out done herself and Ranma was finally sated.   
  
But that was a few hours back from now and Ranma realized that he would have to find food for the coming day. //If I do this at night she can't catch me. I just don't know when I'm gonna sleep if I do that. I haven't done too much training yet so I ain't too tired, but I will be.// Akane would have to slow down if she were going to train and Ranma knew that, but he didn't know if she was going to walk for a while first or if she would travel one day and train the next. He made eye contact with a nest and stole the eggs keeping two to himself and gently laying one near the fire pit. //Can't have her starving on me...Then  
  
again what's she gonna do with it? If she cooks it it's gonna be inedible anyway.//  
  
Ranma couldn't teach her to cook. He'd tried to help her before. Everything was a battle to Ranma and he figured that it brought out the best in him when he trained for a conflict. So when Akane and Ranma went head to head in the kitchen he figured that she would improve. Her cooking however didn't improve. In fact it was worse. She paid less attention to what she was doing and ruined everything she touched. //Oh well I guess I am going to have to learn how to teach people if I'm gonna be a teacher.// Then it dawned on him. //Hey I could teach Akane! She's stubborn, and an impossible student. She don't like to be told what to do. That makes her the perfect student. Well for what I have to do anyway.// Ranma stared up at the few stars that he could see twinkling in the sky. //How should I do this though?// He didn't have long to ponder the question. Sleep eventually crept into his mind and Ranma closed his eyes to welcome the long needed rest.   
  
******************   
  
Akane crept down a long pathway in the woods. Darkness was everywhere around her and she felt her legs beginning to tremble slightly in fear. Each step seemed to quicken, and it took her further and further out of the light. How far had she traveled? She felt as if she had traveled a million years and her legs ached and threatened to give out. Her hair blew in the soundless wind and she allowed herself to look about at her surroundings. She was walking down a long, winding, and unforgiving road. A road that would neither let her sleep, nor eat, nor truly rest. She was recognizably older. She could see herself even though she was herself and she watched the way her steps measured themselves out. She saw a grace in her steps that she didn't know she could achieve. Silent lonely evenings saved in the pools of her own eyes almost as if this Akane had been alone forever. But mostly she saw skill. The way she moved spoke that she had knowledge that Akane hadn't yet acquired. There was seasoned hardness in her rougher hands. She walked in a way that gave away her accomplishments as a martial artist to those who knew what they were looking for. It was then that a voice drifted out of the darkness and the nightmare began.   
  
"AKANE..." It rasped.   
  
A man in black crept slowly closer and closer. Akane was running and terror was in her heart, but no matter how fast she ran he was always a step away. He was walking, but somehow always stayed just in her periphery. She felt like her body was far away, and she felt herself flailing about. Akane felt the air leaving her lungs, she was gasping for the precious sweet relief of breath. His breath caressed her neck like a soft hand. The terror remained, but there was also a sense of thrill that she couldn't explain. He drew life from her body, he survived on her emotions. She silently cursed her lack of training. How could she defeat  
  
such an enemy? In the past she would simply rely on her friends to save her. Her friends would always come to help her. Shampoo, Mousse, Ukyo, Kuno, Ranma...Ranma would always come for her. He was always there to catch her. Catch? The ground was gone! Akane's heart pounded in her ears as she fell. How could she die like this? Falling? She would never live it down. When she met her friends in the afterlife they would certainly barb at her for this one.   
  
The figure in black seemed to float down to meet her and held out its hands to grasp onto, when she didn't take the offered appendages the figure floated forward and held her in an embrace that was like that of a lover. Quick and sure, as if he had done it a thousand times. She felt her body respond to him. Her arms encircled his long beautiful neck and her fingers entangled themselves in his hair. She was going to kiss him, and why not? Weren't they lovers? He was familiar, someone that she could hold forever. Akane stared at her would-be rescuer his face was that of a young man, at least in his twenties. His eyes though were old and smoldering with disgust, hatred, and something she couldn't identify. No...This was all wrong. She didn't know him, she didn't love him, and she was almost positive that he was going to try to do more than kiss.   
  
"You. Are. Mine." The man in black rasped.   
  
"Help...Someone help me...", she thought. A bright blue filled the darkness, swallowing the green of the dark man's eyes. Then Akane screamed the name of the one person she knew could save her...   
  
"RANMA!!!!!" Then her world went black.   
  
Akane's eyes snapped open and she awoke with Ranma's name on her lips. It was raspy and had no volume. Her throat was dry like a person who had run a marathon without liquid or a camel jockey that had forgotten his water on a weeks long trip. Legs and arms that had been wrapped in a sleeping bag last she closed her eyes were now lying on the cold floor of her tent. This cool felt unusually good, she realized. Her body was covered in sweat and she felt as if she had been sleeping in or near a blast furnace. Her mind brought forth images of the dark hooded man. The way she had run from him like he was the devil on her heels. Then the complete opposite of the way she had felt when her hands were snaked in his hair with her arms around him.   
  
Green eyes. He had angry green eyes. //Green,// Akane thought, // was the symbol for greed. He sure seemed to want something from me...// She felt a sort of longing that she had only felt a few times in her life surface above the fear and then suppressed it just as quickly. "What in the world am I doing?" She had said it out loud to nobody, but for some reason she felt as if "he" were listening. The pre-dawn light was filtering through the tent window and made all of the shapes outside seem ominous. Shadows seemed to move everywhere. Also strange was the blue cast that everything around seemed to be illuminated with. Light danced about the few areas where it suffused through leaves and onto trees that seemed to walk. The wind was blowing like in her dream, but this time it had sound. Akane wanted to close her eyes and shut out the early morning world. Get more sleep so that she could start her day a little later, but every time she closed her eyes she saw him...Her beautiful angel... //Where did that come from?// She questioned herself. Akane felt frustrated. It was just a dream after all. Why on earth was she cowering like a five-year-old girl? It was then that Akane noticed her opened tent flap. //Didn't I secure that last night?//  
  
Her senses were screaming, every noise caught her attention and turned into a horrible beast or lecherous green-eyed man. She summoned up all of her courage to zip the tent's flap and noticed that her hands were both slightly blue and crackling with energy. She had only seen this once before...Ranma. What was going on? Had something happened? Maybe her dream wasn't as unreal as it seemed. She felt herself slowly rising off the floor of the tent before she even made an attempt to think about further movement. //Since when am I so fast?// Akane watched the sun's light come up around her and she felt a nagging sensation at her back. She turned and the man in black was there...   
  
***********************   
  
Ranma felt like crap. He couldn't seem to sleep. Something was bothering him, and his senses told him that he should be on guard. Someone or something was watching, and it wasn't part of nature's normal flora and fauna. He had only gotten five hours of sleep before he felt the invading presence. It was overwhelming and definitely not friendly so he sat and waited for it to show itself. After all, Akane was asleep and she would be in poor form to fight just waking up if whatever it was did attack. Ranma decided that being caught was okay as long as Akane was in danger. She was going to be his first pupil after all, couldn't have her dead...Never mind that thought. Ranma watched the world that should be waking up in the early morning darkness. Ranma noticed the complete lack of sound and took it for what it was...Strange. His sense of danger was almost never off. On one hand nothing had happened yet and nothing might happen at all. On the other hand the birds had even abandoned their places on the trees. There was not one living thing left in the clearing besides himself and the sleeping Akane. Ranma allowed himself to check up on Akane and slipped out of the tree onto the ground. His footsteps seemed to echo in the empty space between the tree and Akane's tent It was then that Ranma thought he heard a hoarse whisper...A man's voice and a flash of green.   
  
Every sense in his mind and body called out to him. It was attacking Akane. It was making its move at last. Ranma dropped into a ready stance and loosened up to prepare for a sneak attack. It never came, but that was when Akane began to thrash inside her tent. Ranma panicked, he feared that something might have slipped past him. That thing, whatever it was, must have been extremely fast, and if it was attacking Akane, extremely dead. Ranma unzipped the flap to the tent and stared at Akane, a strange green light circled her, and she breathed like she was running for her life. Her body shuddered and her arms flailed akimbo. "Akane!" Ranma fell to his knees and held the flailing girl in his arms. He didn't know how to help her now, and all he could think to do was keep her from hurting herself. "What in the hell is going on?" Ranma yelled. Her body arched as if she were in terrible pain, and a tear slid from the corner of her eye onto the skin of her cheek that glowed eerily like an emerald. Her eyes were open now, and Ranma saw terror in her normally brown laughing eyes. Even Akane's quick anger was better than terror.   
  
"Akane can you see me? Akane?!?" Ranma screamed her name but she didn't seem to notice him in the thralls of her dreamy flailing. Then suddenly she stopped, and her arms settled around his neck her fingers tangling in his hair. There was something in her eyes now that still contained terror but something else as well. Something that made Ranma's cheeks turn scarlet and his mind almost forget the battle raging in a place he couldn't defend against. For a second Ranma felt his cheeks flush as she came dangerously close to kissing him and he found himself unresisting. Then she was struggling again.   
  
"Help...Someone help me!" Her voice was hard to hear and her eyes were black with fear.   
  
"I will Akane" He screamed to her unhearing ears. Her breath was hot, it was then that Ranma realized her whole body was like a small furnace. His own ki flared a bright blue in the darkness and seemed to flow from his hands to combat the green. Tears were streaking down her cheeks, and at last the thing jumped out of her body. A Small green globe spun out of the tent and into the air.   
  
"Impossible!" It screamed as it began to make its escape into the forest. Ranma sprung to his feet and began to give chase.   
  
He was a kilometer or so out before he gave up looking for the attacker and Ranma ran as quickly as he could to get back to the campsite.   
  
Ranma now drug himself toward camp and he wished silently that he hadn't followed the light. What if it had just been a diversion? He was tired now, too tired. He didn't know if there was any fight left in him but he would sure as hell try if the thing attacked them again. The woods were becoming lighter and lighter as the minutes ticked on, and Ranma could see the clearing. He was prepared to fall into the tent and sleep Akane or not. He had used up too much of his ki to fight whatever had thrust itself upon Akane and running almost two kilometers hadn't helped. What had he done back there? How had he helped Akane with his own ki? He felt like he was freezing, but something in his mind told him that this was impossible. It wasn't winter. It wasn't cold. He sure was cold though. His whole body was shaking and he felt like he was walking in a snowstorm. Ranma concluded that this couldn't possibly be good. Rationalizing that he might have used up his whole life's essence. "Well if I gotta' die I think I want to at least make it back to camp." Ranma smiled half-heartedly. "At least then that un-cute tomboy will have to carry my body all the way back home then." Ranma's mind screamed that something wasn't right. He heard a low chuckling and  
  
then the feeling of sharp pain. Darkness filled his senses.   
  
"I'm sorry Akane. I tried. I love y..."   
  
*********************   
  
"Pitiful little boy!" He spat the words. "Did you think you could beat me?" Hideo Fujiwara looked down at the young man that lay slumped across the trail. He couldn't be sure that he had even struck the blow that had killed this...Ranma. "You seemed to be dying on your feet anyway. Using your ki like that with no training is more than enough to kill, and yet I have to wonder at how you learned to project yourself so quickly and then to survive so long without that part of your soul." He wiped his blade clean on Ranma's red silk Chinese shirt. This strange young man had learned to do something in minutes that had taken him half of his "after-life" to learn. "You are quite amazing...It's really too bad actually. I think that I could have taught you much. Unfortunately I need your woman to survive."   
  
Hideo Fujiwara was a shade. He was neither human nor ghost, but he thrived off of the energy produced in the hearts and minds of the strong. He had decided long ago that he would feed only on the souls and minds of women, as they had done nothing for him in life, they would have to serve his purposes in death. Not even really in death, so much as non-existance. He had been fully human at one time, his creaking bones and sore muscles reminded him of that, as he was locked in the same state that he was in when he first became a shade.   
  
Akane had seemed an excellent target. She was in a state of dreaming. This Ranma had been walking and talking with her about some wealthy land-owner oppressing the weak. She had such strong feelings, he would not have to feed again for months. Of course it didn't hurt that she was quite beautiful. He would seduce her and then lay waste to her. It was exciting and erotic. The fear and the lust that he would force into her dream. She would feel for him like she would feel for no other man, and then she would never feel again. It was what Hideo thought to be a small parting gift. He was a beautiful man after all, and to leave this world with such a visage stamped on your memory was privileged. Then the man from her dreams had truly come to rescue her. He copied the ki transfer perfectly and then purged him from the girl's mind and body. Truly there was a bond there between them. Perhaps love or something more?   
  
"Impossible" he said aloud. The boy had chased him through the forest for nearly an hour before losing his true shape and turning back towards camp and to Akane. Hideo was exhausted. He would have to rid himself of this troublesome creature before he was to capture Akane again. She was his now. He had tasted of her like the vintage of a perfect wine. There was nothing else. She would be his, she belonged to him. Hideo would make her love him like she would never love this Ranma, and then she would be reunited with him in the afterlife. "Touching really." He thought out loud.   
  
He saw the man coming back. His shade had returned to him almost a full ten minutes before Ranma came into site. "Oh well no time like the present." Hideo said to himself laughingly. He sat in wait and studied the fleshling in its silk Chinese Kempo outfit. He was staggering like a drunken woman and looked just as coherent. This would be far too easy. He allowed himself to synch with the young man. //Amazing...He survives even with so little ki. I don't understand how he's doing this.// Ranma wobbled  
  
before him like a reed in the wind. He seemed slightly aware of the impending doom but Hideo cared very little of what Ranma knew or didn't know. He slid the katana slowly out of its scabbard making no sounds to alert the young man. //Give your ancestors a hello from me. Now...goodbye.// His Katana sliced through the air and struck Ranma squarely. He fell like a sack of potatoes. Blood leaked out of the new puncture in his side and Hideo felt the excitement of the kill stew in his insides like a cauldron. Akane would soon die for him, keeping him young, perfect, and alive for much longer than Ranma would be.   
  
"Noooooooooo!" A female voice screamed from behind him.   
  
While basking in the delight of his fresh kill it had become apparent that Akane was ready for revenge. It also was not lost on him that this someone seemed to be very angry, very powerful, and very behind him. She was wailing like a banshee, and looked not beautiful, but frightening. She had a look of revenge. "DIE!"   
  
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The man in Black had his back to Akane and she could not discern what his features might be. Then time seemed to slow down around her. Her heart felt as if it were tearing itself from her body and seemed to die. The creature from her nightmare stood over Ranma. He was bleeding everywhere...Dead.   
  
"Nooooooooo!" It tore from her throat like so many claws scraping against her windpipe. She would kill this creature. She brought her hands forth. Blue crackling energy still surged like lightning kissing the earth. She brought her wrists together and focused all of her pain, loss, and anger into the man that seemed to glow green. Akane shrieked in despair and all the built up ki went flying and crackling toward the green energy. "DIE!" she commanded. The ki Akane released was a mix of blue and angry red. A green ball escaped the blazing crackling inferno and the man in black was vaporized. Akane thought she heard a howl of anger, and a promise of harsh revenge, and then she sank to her knees.  
  
"No, no nonononono." It was seconds before she rose and ran to the place where Ranma lay. The ground was black to the right and left of his unmoving body, but where he lay bloody grass peeked around in a circle. The air smelled of ozone and charred flesh. Akane wanted to vomit, but instead she simply coughed and held the bile in her throat. If she were going to die, she would die here. With Ranma.   
  
***************************   
  
"Ranma? Please no, please don't leave me alone..." Akane's voice cut through the mist.   
  
His mind was foggy at best but he always knew Akane. She was next to him and was holding him close. She was crying again. No not crying, sobbing. He hated it when she cried, he had never heard her sob before. It was absolutely heart wrenching. Ranma could smell blood, it was his own he guessed...Then the other scent reached him and tried to turn his stomach inside out. He had only smelled it once before, in Jusendo, when he...It was getting hard to think again so he concentrated on Akane. She had curled up next to him and he could smell her shampoo. He tried to open his eyes but they didn't want to obey him.   
  
//OPEN!// He ordered them silently, and they did. Akane was, just as he imagined, right next to him. He  
  
had never seen something so beautiful in his life...Partly because it was just one more chance that life was giving him to "get it right" as his father would have said, and partly because she truly looked like an angel. Blue light was seeping into him wherever their bodies touched and Ranma felt a little more alive with each passing moment. //Oh I get it. Akane had my ki...I didn't get it back when the freaky green thingy left her. So, when I left I was running on empty.// Sobbing, Akane brushed her fingers over the place where that jerk in black stabbed him. //If I ever see that guy again I'm gonna'...// Then his mind returned to the acrid smell of burnt mammal and realized that he would never, in fact, see that guy again.   
  
Akane was shuddering, crying, and breathing in turns, so Ranma decided that he should try to concentrate on getting Akane to realize that he was still alive so that he would stay that way. Ranma found that speech wouldn't quite come, so he resorted to breathing really hard.   
  
"Ranma?" Akane's face turned up toward him. She was even more beautiful with a face, Ranma decided."Ranma...You're alive...I thought...I thought...Oh, Ranma!" She passed out.   
  
//Great. I'm leaking like a sieve and she passes out.// Ranma thought desperately. "Akane no baka...I need you...Help me..." The words croaked agonizingly slow from his mouth but he forced them to come. Akane seemed to sputter to life and she began to tear at her gi. "Come on...This ain't no time for that." It was getting easier to speak so he decided to do what came natural. He couldn't make her worry any more. It killed him enough that she was so distraught in the first place. Not to mention that he had no idea what this guy had done to Akane while he was "out to lunch".   
  
"Ranma no baka, I'm going to dress your wounds." She tore up her gi top into strips and ran over to the tent for her first aid kit.   
  
He watched her go through the motions of cleaning and dressing the cut. It was deep and required stitches, Akane seemed to be doing well with it. Ranma noticed that her fingers shook and that beneath her nails the skin was black and blue.   
  
"Crap. Akane you're in shock." His mind ran incredibly slow, and he thought he heard her dismiss it. He felt himself going into shock right along with her, and his eyes closed again. //...No...I gotta' stay up...I gotta' stay aware.// Ranma no longer felt Akane near him and he wondered if she had fallen to the side of him. Perhaps he could summon the power to find her. He felt a blanket cover him, then he felt Akane slide in under the blanket next to him. "Relax." Akane's voice was calm and without emotion. "We will survive this." The world went black and Ranma dimly wondered if either of them would make it through the day. 


End file.
